Cherry Oatmeal Muffins

It's June!!!

And yes, time for The Secret Recipe Club reveal!!

The Secret Recipe Club was started by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin' and is now overseen by April of Angel's Homestead.  

Our fearless leader of Group C continues to be Angie of Big Bear's Wife.

The Secret Recipe Club is based on the game of Secret Santa that many people play at Christmas time.  Every blogger in group A, B, C, or D is assigned another blog in their group from which they are to pick a recipe and then blog about it on their particular reveal day.  The fun part is, you get to "stalk" the blog you're assigned, searching for a recipe, but not telling the blog owner that you've been assigned to them that month.

It has been so much fun since I started last August!  I have been able to explore new blogs I haven't known about, tasted many wonderful recipes and the best part, is I've been able to  "meet" so many wonderful bloggers.  There are so very many talented people out there and it is such an honor being able to learn from and be inspired by them!

One of my favorite parts of The Secret Recipe Club is finding out who had 365 Days of Baking for the month.  It's pretty awesome when someone who has been following your blog and commenting on your posts shares one of your recipes or someone whose blog you weren't even aware of  is assigned to you and posts your recipe.  I love to see each person's personality and tastes revealed in the recipe they pick.  It's pretty awesome.

If you're a blogger and you would be interested in participating, I highly recommend it!  You can go here to sign up.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the blog I was assigned to for the month of June was....

Cook with Sara!!!

I was excited to receive this assignment because I had yet to get to know Sara and her blog.  And I have to tell you I was AMAZED at the amount of recipes she has accumulated.  She has been one busy woman!!

Sara "loves to cook AND eat", but also enjoys showing her love for her family and friends through her food and that is so apparent in her posts.  She also has such a warm and friendly smile that I could just see sitting at her kitchen table, sharing a meal and just talking for hours about our love of food!

She has SO many recipes that I know you won't be at a loss to find a something for dinner, dessert or even a side dish.  Her list is truly amazing!

I really had trouble deciding what to make.  I couldn't decide between the Crockpot Carnitas, the Fried Rice, the Strawberry White Chocolate Ice Cream or the Gumdrops, but they're on my list of to-do's!

Oh, and there's even more, believe me!

And one of her recent posts, Cilantro Lime Chicken is at the very TOP of my list because I go NUTS for that stuff at Chipotle!  I can't wait to try it, I'm so very excited!!

Thank you, Sara, for introducing me to so many of your wonderful recipes!  I am excited to explore many of them and expand my family's menu (which is always a good thing!)!

I chose the following recipe because we ADORE  muffins here at the 365 home, they're simple enough to make, are delicious, and can be made in under 45 minutes, from assembling all ingredients to eating them off the wire rack.  And yes, quite a few of them were eaten immediately off the wire rack even though I warned the MR. that they would be extremely hot after just being taken out of a 400 degree oven.
You'd think I never feed the man, he was so ravenous for these things!

I also chose this particular recipe because I had never baked with cherries before because I really haven't been a fresh cherry fan.

BUT, as you can see from recent posts, the Cherry Blueberry Turnovers and the Cherry Banana Bliss Smoothie, all that has changed.

You can even go here to see me in my first video tutorial instructing you how to pit these little buggers using something everyone has in their home.  And no, you don't need to go to the store to purchase a cherry pitter, you can save the money and do it yourself!

I only substituted fresh cherries for Sara's frozen ones.  Other than that, I kept everything the same.

The recipe I chose from Sara's blog is her ...

Cherry Oatmeal Muffins - makes 12

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats, uncooked

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 cup fresh, pitted cherries, quartered

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by lining it with muffin liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg.  Add the buttermilk and oil.   Mix well to combine.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.
Fold in cherries.
Distribute the batter evenly among the 12 prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 20-22 minutes until slightly golden brown.

Transfer individual muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients and combine.
The batter will be slightly lumpy.  It's ok.

Add cherries.

I rate everything I make on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best and these Cherry Oatmeal Muffins earned 3 1/2 rolling pins.

They were quite delicious and a real hit with the family - obviously from Mr. 365's reaction when they came out of the oven.

The texture of the oatmeal was great, they were sweetened just enough, very moist, and the bits of cherry were a real treat.

These will definitely be on my menu every cherry season!

Thank you, Sara!

I give you BIG baking hugs and muffins!!

Be sure to check out what other delicious recipes my fellow bloggers have made and whose blog they were assigned!